Jean-Pierre Furlan was born in Muret close to Toulouse, of Venetian parents. Initially a trumpeter at the Toulouse Conservatoire, he continued his studies at the Ecole Normale de Musique in Paris where he won many prizes. In 1985 he began vocal studies with Christiane Patard and shortly afterwards decided to devote himself entirely to singing, entering in 1987 the Chorus of the French Army and quickly becoming one of their principal soloists.

Having been discovered by Gabriel Dussurget, he began his career in the 1992-1993 season with the role of Hoffmann at the Salle Gaveau in Paris. He soon added several other major roles to his repertoire: the Duke of Mantua (Rigoletto) and Edgardo (Lucia di Lammermoor) with the Opéra National du Rhin and the Malmö opera, Faust (Damnation of Faust) and Vincent (Mireille) at Avignon, Pinkerton (Madama Butterfly) at the Royal Opera of Wallonia, Marcello (La Boheme - Leoncavallo) at the Wexford Festival, Macduff (Macbeth) at the Opera in Tours and Toulon and Alfredo (Traviata) for Dublin Grand Opera. During this period he also won the prize of the 'Clefs d’or de la Halle aux Grains' (Toulouse).

Between 1995 and 1999, he made his debuts at La Fenice in Venice with the role of Pinkerton and in Romeo and Juliette by Berlioz, at La Scala, Milan in the title role of Faust by Gounod, and with the Hamburg Opera and the Deutsche Oper in Berlin where he sang the title role in the Tales of Hoffmann. He was invited to North America to sing Pollione (Norma) with Toronto Opera, Hoffmann at Philadelphia, and at Boston he sang the role of Radames (Aida) for the first time, and the title role in Verdi's Don Carlos in the five act version. He also sang Pinkerton in Cagliari and Hoffmann in Sassari.

In the year 2000, Jean-Pierre Furlan added two more important roles to his repertoire: Don José in Carmen, which he sang at the Royal Opera of Wallonia, in Avignon, Carcassonne, the Opéra National du Rhin, Leipzig, Zurich and Hamburg, and the role of Manrico in the French version of Il Trovatore in Montpellier, and in the Italian version at the esplanade in Saint-Etienne. Soon after he sang the roles of Cavaradossi (Tosca) at Saint-Etienne and Jean (Hérodiade) at Liege followed by Don Jose at Marseille, Don Carlos at Hamburg, Artus (Le Fou by Landowski) at the Châtelet theatre in Paris, Hoffmann at the Savonlinna festival, and Pinkerton at Karlsruhe and Hamburg.

On the concert platform he has performed Berlioz's Requiem at the Palais Omnisport in Bercy, The Damnation of Faust at Monte Carlo, Birmingham, Beijing and Tokyo (invited by Charles Dutoit), Das Klagende Lied (Mahler) at Madrid, the Petite Messe Solennelle by Rossini at Marseille and Lille (for the opening concert celebrating Lille as European City of Culture) , the Dvorak Requiem at Antibes and at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris (under the direction of Myung-Whun-Chung).

He has recently added several dramatic roles to his repertoire including Luigi (Il Tabarro) with Lyon Opera, Canio (I Pagliacci), the title roles in Polyeucte (Gounod), Samson (Samson and Dalila) at the Esplanade in Saint Etienne, Calaf (Turandot) at Avignon, and the title role in Le Cid (Massenet) at Zurich under the direction of Michel Plasson where to great success he replaced Jose Cura at only two days notice.